Good stuff. This is more the way I envisioned the WAR ON TERROR! to play out. I'm OK with the CIA drones in Pakistan, too.

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That's kind of what I was thinking. Would we have been more effective taking out specific targets with specialists vs. taking out broad targets and searching for the specifics with an all-out occupation?

Good stuff. This is more the way I envisioned the WAR ON TERROR! to play out. I'm OK with the CIA drones in Pakistan, too.

Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking. Would we have been more effective taking out specific targets with specialists vs. taking out broad targets and searching for the specifics with an all-out occupation?

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Absolutely. I always figured this would be a CIA "war" -- tracking down the bad guys across international borders with small undercover teams. Of course, maybe i watch too many movies.

Actually, what struck me about this -- and I have followed it from the beginning when it happened last week -- is that unlike past assassinations (presumably) by the Israelis, this one seems to have left too many tracks behind. Usually everyone knows it was the Israelis, but there is no proof, they don't confirm or deny and there is no trail of anything pointing toward anyone.

Immediately on this one, they had passport numbers, names (fake names, but ones that belong to real people) and video footage and photos of the killers. This was a professional hit squad, but they seemed kind of amateurish as far as those things go because the Dubai officials have plastered their photos all over the Internet. Also, many of the names they chose for the passports belong to dual-nationals with ties to Israel. One was a guy who lives on a Kibbutz, is in his 50s and has had bipass surgery. The mere fact that those people's lives have been screwed up over this -- they now have warrants out for their arrests -- makes this anything but clean.

It is leading some to speculate (and who knows) that the Israelis weren't involved in this and some other government or organization purposely chose names with Israeli ties to try to set them up.

EDIT: The other explanation I have read is that the Israelis purposely chose the people they did for the forged passports as a way of telling everyone they did it as a warning, while still being able to follow their policy of non-comment/ambiguity.
Who knows what the real truth is. Whatever it is, it is interesting and kind of bizarre.

EDIT: The other explanation I have read is that the Israelis purposely chose the people they did for the forged passports as a way of telling everyone they did it as a warning, while still being able to follow their policy of non-comment/ambiguity.
Who knows what the real truth is. Whatever it is, it is interesting and kind of bizarre.

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I think that is what's so interesting too. If we didn't have any details, there wouldn't be much to talk about or speculate about.

I've got to think Israel didn't much mind that everyone knows they were behind it. The risks were probably worth it to them, and in some way works in their favor.

Everyone knows they did, but they'll deny it. In the mean time, the bad guys have to be worried. If they're willing to be that brazen, any one of them could be next.

I was also particularly intrigued by the method of killing -- strangulation. No need to smuggle in weapons. It's also got to take a much more dedicated assassin/group of assassins I would think. There's something less personal about shooting or poisoning someone. (I'm guessing.) This is hands on -- literally.

But when it comes to Israel and Hamas, I never quite see it as simply as "good guys" and "bad guys."

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Nor do I. Way too simplistic given the history. My "bad guys" reference was an observation about how the broader "War on Terror" should be unfolding rather than the Dick Cheney/Don Rumsfeld model of sending in hundreds of thousands troops in to occupy countries.